The garden in May
Kari-Astri Davies is admiring her hawthorns, planning her planting and preparing for new tomatoes
There is some debate about whether or not the saying: “Ne’er cast a clout till May be out” refers to the hawthorn, also known as the May tree, or the month of May. In Old English, clout is a piece of cloth, originally for patching a hole, and is reflected in the name of the Scottish boiled pudding, clootie dumpling. I certainly will not consider casting off any clouts until the month is well under way.
Scent and colour
We have two hawthorns, Crataegus monogyna. One is a small spiky tree that is barely noticed among a jumble of other hedging. The other forms the end of a raised flower bed near the house, standing apart to be admired. In the past, hawthorns, along with rowans, were planted close to houses to give protection to the family from witches and the antics of Robin Goodfellow, or Puck. Our house tree is approximately 26ft (8m) high. A gnarly trunk rises from the gravelled ground; the shaggy, finely striated bark giving it a sinuousness that is strokable. When the clusters of creamy white flowers first come out, the scent is pervasive and sweet. Bees hum above my head in the blossom-packed branches. As the flowers age, a chemical, triethylamine, becomes dominant and the scent somewhat less attractive. Blown flowers loosen their tiny petals to drift down and stipple the ground. Last year, with the sun and heat, our local hawthorns were heavy with deep red haws, warming the hedgerows until the redwings came in and stripped them within a week in December. In May, the cycle begins once more. I am not keen on the red-flowered and doubled forms of hawthorn, which are generally midland thorn, C. laevigata, cultivars. If I had the space, I might consider the later flowering cockspur thorn, Crataegus x lavalleei, a US native hybridised in France in the 19th century. I have been drawn to this small, rounded tree, which has non-divided glossy leaves and larger haws, in a number of gardens I have visited.
Old favourites
Last year, a cold wave, dubbed the ‘Beast from the East’, delayed the planting out of annuals and tender plants as I struggled to catch up with weeding and tidying. Then the hot weather kiboshed the weeding and planting, as the ground became too hard. My efforts are being redoubled to get things planted out in a timely way this year. I have grown some old favourites which are ready for planting out now, including Californian poppy ‘Red Chief’, which is a vivid orange; nasturtiums ‘Black Velvet’ and ‘Bloody Mary’, the latter being cream with red striping, and the moody-blue-purple bee magnet Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’.
“As full of spirit as the month of May” William shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I
Taller plants from seed include annual Polygonum orientale ‘Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate’, which has a quite astonishing growth rate. It should make at least 6½ft (2m) in growth in one summer. I also have amaranthus ‘Red Army’, which has deep-purply leaves and tassels, and, new to me, the incense plant, Humea elegans, for its scent. When it comes to scent, I have also sown mignonette, Reseda odorata, which smells like boiled fruit sweets, and Nicotiana alata, a taller, white-flowered tobacco plant.
Food plants
At the end of May, squashes ‘Potimarron’ and ‘Sweet Meat’ will be planted out in the last of the compost bin compost. This year, they will not be semi-shaded by the old pear tree, which went this winter, so with luck I will get a better crop. The last of the overwintering plants in the greenhouse will be cleared out to make way for tomatoes and peppers. For the tomatoes, bottoms of 2-litre plastic pots are cut off, and the pots are pushed a little way into the soil in the permanent greenhouse beds. A cane is inserted into each, and they are filled with bagged compost. Then the young tomato plants, this year ‘Gardener’s Delight’, ‘Pantano’ and ‘Wladeck’s’, are firmed-in, tied in with twine and watered.
“The Hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, Till the whole leafy forest stands displayed, In full luxuriance, to the sighing gales” James Thomson, ‘The Seasons, Spring’